Change of plans —

Sprint raises data pricing for mobile hotspot tethering

$6/GB option to be replaced by $10/GB, $8.33/GB options.

Sprint has changed its mobile hotspot tethering offerings, dropping one current plan and adding two new ones with higher per-gigabyte monthly charges.

Phandroid picked up on the updates in a Sprint community forum thread. The company will no longer offer its $30 per month plan with 5GB of data ($6 per GB), but customers who currently have this plan will be able to keep it. Sprint's two new plans include a $20 per month with only 2GB of data ($10 per GB) and a $50 per month plan with 6GB ($8.33 per GB).

In addition to the new rates, Sprint said it will start helping users track their data usage. Customers can enroll with the company to receive notices when they reach 75, 90, and 100 percent of their monthly limit. As GigaOM notes however, it's a bit murky as to when Sprint considers the mobile hotspot feature turned on (based on their statement)—"both MHS and phone data usage pull from the MHS monthly data allowance.” Seems like unlimited data offered on the phone during hotspot usage counts against the cap.

40 Reader Comments

Why limits? They are basically HOPING we'd go over the limit so they can send us an outrageous bill. Most customers will pay rather than fight it.

If the limits are truly for what carriers say they are: to prevent misuse by a small percentage of their customers; then throttle the connection after so many GBs to, say 1/10th of speed. If I were in charge of solving the 10% of users using 90% of bandwidth issue then that's what I'd do. Caps are just a money grab. It's like speeding traps. Cops are HOPING and EXPECTING you to speed. It has dick to do with public safety.

I pay $35 (deal I got regular is $45) a month, no contract, unlimited internet, unlimited calling anywhere in North America, Unlimited texting of the same ...and unlimited and free tethering. I'm on WIND in Canada and my service has been superior to my old carrier Telus and my internet is faster when I have tested against people on Rogers, Telus and Bell. A startup company can do this and turn a profit while building new infrastructure like crazy just shows how much companies like AT&T, Verizon and Sprint here are ripping you off creating this artificial scarcity on mobile data.

As data access on my Sprint iPhone 4S is complete shit anyway - both slow AND unreliable, here near Omaha NE - I'd tend to think any attempt to tether would be idiotic. Good to know they're so pro-consumer, though. They're making it easy for me to switch to burner phones with no data access at all when this bloody contract expires.

As data access on my Sprint iPhone 4S is complete shit anyway - both slow AND unreliable, here near Omaha NE - I'd tend to think any attempt to tether would be idiotic. Good to know they're so pro-consumer, though. They're making it easy for me to switch to burner phones with no data access at all when this bloody contract expires.

Same here. They're in no position to be raising rates on anything.

I'll probably be contract breaking and switching to another carrier once the next iPhone rev comes out. A larger screen and a different carrier would both be welcome improvements.

I pay $35 (deal I got regular is $45) a month, no contract, unlimited internet, unlimited calling anywhere in North America, Unlimited texting of the same ...and unlimited and free tethering.

You left off the (really big) caveat that all of that only applies while you're in the 5 Canadian cities that WIND actually covers. As soon as you step outside, it's 20¢ per minute, 15¢ per text message, and $1/MB (on top of your monthly plan). I mean, it's great that you spend all your time in one of those cities, but there are an awful lot of Canadians that spend time outside one of those 5 cities. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to see WIND expand across the country, but until/unless it does, let's not pretend that WIND is offering the same product as TELUS in Canada or Sprint in the US.

I'm on Sprint right now and was just lamenting about how tethering is this expensive "bonus option". If they could have offered unlimited tethering for $30 or similar ("For only $100 a month, get unlimited data through your phone, including tethering!") I probably would have done it even though I rarely ever find a need to tether.

I already pay a premium for Sprint's unlimited data, even though I rarely go above 2GB a month.

I really don't understand why the practice of charging extra for tethering is accepted. It's like the water company saying that you can use as much water as you want if you use internal fixtures but if you want to use a hose to wash your car you're going to be billed for two residences.

I really don't understand why the practice of charging extra for tethering is accepted. It's like the water company saying that you can use as much water as you want if you use internal fixtures but if you want to use a hose to wash your car you're going to be billed for two residences.

Yeah, pretty much. But the thing is, they have to monetize in order to show growth every quarter to shareholders.

Yeah, pretty much. But the thing is, they have to monetize in order to show growth every quarter to shareholders.

Reminds me a little of when home broadband was just starting to hit its stride here in the States and ISPs tried to charge customers extra if they had a router in the house. IIRC, end-users put the kibosh to that right-quick. The same doesn't appear to be happening here. Americans have become good little consumers.

I work for Sprint customer service. Here's how it works, to my understanding:

-The old plans are going away. Unsure if will be grandfathered, but everything else like this has.-Data usage while the hotspot counts against the cap, regardless of whether it's from the phone or an external device.-When you get to 75% and 100% of the cap you automatically get an email (if you have one on your account) and a text message.-When you reach the cap you're redirected to a website that tells you that if you keep using it you get charged a $4/MB overage rate. You have to accept this to keep using data. Not sure if you get redirected if you go over the cap while streaming something (like Netflix), and unsure if this makes you get charged overages before being notified.

I wonder how many people actually pay for tethering, and aren't stealing it via a rooted Android device.

How can you steal something you are already paying for? Even when you tether, the data that is sent is still sourced from the phone, and is processed by the phone. It's like saying when you talk on the phone if someone whispers in your ear while you are talking into the phone, you have to pay double. And if you try to memorize what someone told you to say on the phone, you are stealing service, because those thoughts weren't yours they were from somebody else.

How do you already pay for it? If you pay extra for the tethering, then you obviously aren't stealing it.

If you aren't paying for a service, but circumvent mulitple things meant to stop you from using tethering for free, you are stealing it.

Sprint doesn't use the honor system, last I checked. Tethering is an add-on that has a fee. It doesn't matter if the data comes from the same place or not, they want you to pay extra to use your phone as a hotspot. Just because you don't agree with it doesn't mean it's ok to not pay for it.

Is it ok to pay for basic cable but remove the filters and get all the channels? Is it ok to pay for basic satellite service but use a hacked card to get everything? It all comes on the same signal, it's just filtered out based on what you pay. Same for tethering on Sprint.

Tethering is an add-on that has a fee. It doesn't matter if the data comes from the same place or not, they want you to pay extra to use your phone as a hotspot. Just because you don't agree with it doesn't mean it's ok to not pay for it.

Actually, it is ok to not pay extra for it. The carriers don't realize this yet, but they'll come around eventually when the backlash gets to be too much.

(See also: Carrier's excuse for not allowing phone number portability; public reaction to)

I've been a Sprint customer for over ten years. But as soon as my current contract is up, I'm leaving for Verizon. There used to be good reasons to stick with Sprint (unlimited data, Sprint Loyalty Rewards, etc) but I can no longer identify any. The difference in price between Sprint and Verizon is so small as to be non-existant, and the difference in quality of service is huge.

If you root your phone, you can tether for free. One caveat though, if you then ABUSE the data connection (use more than 5GB/mo), you may be "asked" to leave Sprint. I have been tethering for over a year with no problems, but I rarely use more than 2GB a month...the most I use tethering for is to read the news in the morning on my bus ride to work...

And by the way...you CAN legally bypass any filters on your cable to watch whatever is broadcast unencrypted to your home. That is TOTALLY legal. What is not legal is to decrypt encrypted signals. But if they broadcast it "in the clear", you are not stealing anything. There was a legal case around this a few years ago...which is why the cable companies are now digitally encrypting everything they can.

And for the argument that you are "already paying for data"...it doesn't really hold water with Sprint, because they give you unlimited data, for use on your PHONE. If you were paying AT&T or Verizon for 5GB a month, they SHOULD NOT care if you use that data on a phone or on another device...it's your data, who cares HOW it is used! But on Sprint, they are actually giving you UNLIMITED data, no caps, no overages...so it makes sense they would charge extra for tethering. That being said...I have a hard time justifying an extra $20-$50/month for something I use so rarely, especially when I already give them $90/month just for my one device!

Steps 4-6 occurs regardless if you use tethering... Your phone is already allowed to do 4-6.

The fact that data sent in step 5 came over Wifi is irrelevent. It could have come over WiFi, it could have come from the keyboard, etc. What if my laptop translates web requests into a voice command, and speaks it to Siri. Then it uses the webcam to capture the screen and then do object recognition? Is that still "stealing"?

What if my wife tells me to lookup something, and I look it up on my phone for her? Is that stealing too? How is the fact that the request came over voice, wifi, etc, relevant? It doesn't matter if the data came from a local app, a remote app, carrier pigeon, etc. The end result is the same. The *PHONE* is making a data connection so that an *APP ON THE PHONE* can send/receive data. What that app does is none of the carrier's business... It can display the data on the screen, play it out the loudspeaker, drop it on the floor, broadcast it on WiFi, etc.

The phone has to process the request from your other devices. If the phone is capable of reading/processing data from your laptop, it is capable of generating/processing that traffic for itself. After all, it has to, otherwise it wouldn't be able to encapsulate it over 3G. My phone has a 720p display, and HDMI out... I can already stream HD streams directly to my TV from my phone as is. All that traffic is generated from my phone. Any traffic the PC can generate, the phone can generate itself.

If I have a 7 gig iso sitting on cloud storage, does it make a difference if my phone pulls it down, onto it's SD card, or if my laptop requests the same file over wifi? The same 7 gigs is going to come down the pipe regardless who originated the request.

Once again, companies weren't / aren't ready for technology and think forcing people to pay for the option is the way to go.

The ISPs in my area seem to charge approximately 1.00 USD / 4 or 5GB. If the wireless phone companies want to claim that their expense is much higher, I can understand charging more per GB, but it's not right to charge for a data plan and then charge more because the user chooses to use it in a certain way while still remaining inside the data plan limits.

You are already paying for data for the phone. The phone is allowed to make data connections. You aren't doing anything the phone isn't already allowed to do.

Actually you are. The phone is not allowed to share its connection with other devices for free. You have to obtain root access, then install a hacked or third party program to enable this feature. Or pay for the carrier for it.

It's actually supposed to be a feature in Android 2.2 and up, so the fact that they disable it, would also mean that it's not allowed to do it without paying.

But on Sprint, they are actually giving you UNLIMITED data, no caps, no overages...so it makes sense they would charge extra for tethering.

Definition of "unlimited" from Dictionary.com

Quote:

without any qualification or exception; unconditional.

They are not providing unlimited, if they are giving you a conditional restraint, saying you can't use a particular app on the phone.

If the phone is allowed to send/receive unlimited amounts of data, what difference does it make where that data is targeted? is it ok if I google, "Target, Costco, and Walmart"? What if my wife asked me to google Target, my son asked me to google Costco, and my sister asked me to google Walmart? If it's ok if my wife asks me to google Target, is it ok if her laptop asks me to google it? (ie, it submits a voice query to me, and I get the response, and I recite it to her laptop, which then does speech recognition)? Now what if I automated that process so that the sound inputs/outputs were tied together? What if I simplified it, and made it go over wifi?

But on Sprint, they are actually giving you UNLIMITED data, no caps, no overages...so it makes sense they would charge extra for tethering.

Definition of "unlimited" from Dictionary.com

Quote:

without any qualification or exception; unconditional.

They are not providing unlimited, if they are giving you a conditional restraint, saying you can't use a particular app on the phone.

If the phone is allowed to send/receive unlimited amounts of data, what difference does it make where that data is targeted? is it ok if I google, "Target, Costco, and Walmart"? What if my wife asked me to google Target, my son asked me to google Costco, and my sister asked me to google Walmart? If it's ok if my wife asks me to google Target, is it ok if her laptop asks me to google it? (ie, it submits a voice query to me, and I get the response, and I recite it to her laptop, which then does speech recognition)? Now what if I automated that process so that the sound inputs/outputs were tied together? What if I simplified it, and made it go over wifi?[/

The tethering app isn't used by the phone to consume data directly. It's used by the phone to share data with other devices. Any data used by the phone directly and not another device is unlimited.

You don't seem to get what I am saying. Sprint explicity states that you are not supposed share your devices data connection with other devices without paying them for it. It doesn't matter if you agree with that or not. If you take multiple steps to unlock your device and install a hacked or third party program to go around paying that fee for their service, you are stealing from them.

The phone is not allowed to share its connection with other devices for free. You have to obtain root access, then ....

No you don't... You only need to obtain root, if you want to enable the stock WiFi hotspot... You do'nt need root to share data. You can have a user app that opens a bluetooth socket for example, and receives/sends data to your PC on that, then have the app open a network socket on the 3G interface.

On the PC side, you can have an app that makes the bluetooth connection, then relays the data down to an NDIS driver, to expose a virtual ethernet adapter.

Then you can share the internet without rooting your phone... Apps on the phone are allowed to use data... Where the app gets the data or what it does with the data is not the carrier's concern.

Of course this is more complicated, then just using the stock app... All the carrier is doing when they lock out the stock app, is change which APN the app is using. They locked the app to use this other APN that they charge you to use... When people root their phone, they change the APN back to the normal APN.

The phone is not allowed to share its connection with other devices for free. You have to obtain root access, then ....

No you don't... You only need to obtain root, if you want to enable the stock WiFi hotspot... You do'nt need root to share data. You can have a user app that opens a bluetooth socket for example, and receives/sends data to your PC on that, then have the app open a network socket on the 3G interface.

On the PC side, you can have an app that makes the bluetooth connection, then relays the data down to an NDIS driver, to expose a virtual ethernet adapter.

Then you can share the internet without rooting your phone... Apps on the phone are allowed to use data... Where the app gets the data or what it does with the data is not the carrier's concern.

Of course this is more complicated, then just using the stock app... All the carrier is doing when they lock out the stock app, is change which APN the app is using. They locked the app to use this other APN that they charge you to use... When people root their phone, they change the APN back to the normal APN.

Yeah, good point. I don't really think Sprint cares about that because honestly, the average person doesn't even know it's a possibility. Most of the people I know that have a rooted Android device did it solely for the free hotspot.

a_v_s wrote:

clamknuckle wrote:

The tethering app isn't used by the phone to consume data directly.... Any data used by the phone directly

So you agree you can do the latter?

So I can write an app that sends/receives data.... The app resides on the phone, so it's legit right?

Yes, I would concede that. If you can do it out of the box without anything extra, it wouldn't be theft.

The carriers don't realize this yet, but they'll come around eventually when the backlash gets to be too much.

The only reason carriers allow you to port your number is because of an FCC mandate.

And the FCC mandate happened because... ?

(I assume that you're simply playing devil's advocate in this thread, or perhaps engaging in mild pedantry. I certainly hope you're not agreeing with or advocating for the carrier's policy of charging extra for tethering.)

The local libertarians would blithely tell you to choose another carrier from the cornucopia of wireless competition if you don't like it. And then the discussion would devolve into 'regulatory capture', how carriers outside the US operate, great/small population densities over the coverage area, and every other distraction from the main point and at the end of day you'd still be stuck with $4000 per GB.

Let's just hope that none of that data was shared with a laptop without a tethering contract or else you're looking at some serious jail time...

But on Sprint, they are actually giving you UNLIMITED data, no caps, no overages...so it makes sense they would charge extra for tethering.

Definition of "unlimited" from Dictionary.com

Quote:

without any qualification or exception; unconditional.

They are not providing unlimited, if they are giving you a conditional restraint, saying you can't use a particular app on the phone.

If the phone is allowed to send/receive unlimited amounts of data, what difference does it make where that data is targeted? is it ok if I google, "Target, Costco, and Walmart"? What if my wife asked me to google Target, my son asked me to google Costco, and my sister asked me to google Walmart? If it's ok if my wife asks me to google Target, is it ok if her laptop asks me to google it? (ie, it submits a voice query to me, and I get the response, and I recite it to her laptop, which then does speech recognition)? Now what if I automated that process so that the sound inputs/outputs were tied together? What if I simplified it, and made it go over wifi?[/

The tethering app isn't used by the phone to consume data directly. It's used by the phone to share data with other devices. Any data used by the phone directly and not another device is unlimited.

You don't seem to get what I am saying. Sprint explicity states that you are not supposed share your devices data connection with other devices without paying them for it. It doesn't matter if you agree with that or not. If you take multiple steps to unlock your device and install a hacked or third party program to go around paying that fee for their service, you are stealing from them.

And Sprint's statement that this is verbotten is about as ridiculous as your water utility saying you are not allowed to use water from your tap to wash your car, unless you pay a supplemental "car-washing" fee for them to provide this "additional service".

You're paying for the bits and bytes, or you're paying for the water -- in either case the delivery is precisely the same, regardless of what purpose you put those megabytes or those gallons to. The corporate desire to somehow wring some additional, unearned extra cash by some magical re-labelling of your otherwise unremarkable use as "an additional service" is pure techno-babble flim-flamery. It relies entirely on consumer technological ignorance to cast a spurious air of reasonable expectation over this naked abuse and blatant double-dipping.

The local libertarians would blithely tell you to choose another carrier from the cornucopia of wireless competition if you don't like it. And then the discussion would devolve into 'regulatory capture', how carriers outside the US operate, great/small population densities over the coverage area, and every other distraction from the main point and at the end of day you'd still be stuck with $4000 per GB.

The carriers don't realize this yet, but they'll come around eventually when the backlash gets to be too much.

The only reason carriers allow you to port your number is because of an FCC mandate.

And the FCC mandate happened because... ?

(I assume that you're simply playing devil's advocate in this thread, or perhaps engaging in mild pedantry. I certainly hope you're not agreeing with or advocating for the carrier's policy of charging extra for tethering.)

I got tired of reading through the BS back and forth over tethering, so pardon me if this point has already been made.

Charging extra for tethering is where the actual theft is occurring - using the cable company analogy above, it's as if the cable company charged you more for using their box on a 55" HDTV instead of a 19" HDTV. The content is exactly the same, so it's complete bullshit.

I got tired of reading through the BS back and forth over tethering, so pardon me if this point has already been made.

Charging extra for tethering is where the actual theft is occurring - using the cable company analogy above, it's as if the cable company charged you more for using their box on a 55" HDTV instead of a 19" HDTV. The content is exactly the same, so it's complete bullshit.